Reaction
"This was a cleaving point - the moment when the gentle, optimistic proposition called "conservation" began its transformation into the bitterly divisive idea that would come to be known as environmentalism."
- William Souder in On a Farther Shore
- William Souder in On a Farther Shore
The controversial response to Silent Spring was almost instantaneous. Whether people supported Carson or not, Silent Spring undeniably brought environmentalism to the forefront of a worldwide discussion.
"Her knack for gentle explanation beguiled critics and readers alike, even those who could have never imagined caring about science or the strange world that so fascinated Carson." - William Souder in On a Farther Shore
"Her knack for gentle explanation beguiled critics and readers alike, even those who could have never imagined caring about science or the strange world that so fascinated Carson." - William Souder in On a Farther Shore
The Industry
“When Silent Spring was at last published in book form on September 27, 1962, the chemical industry went ballistic.” - Douglas Brinkley, Aubudon Magazine
"Pesticide producers had tried to intimidate Carson's publisher into suppressing the book before publication. Agricultural and trade journals attacked Silent Spring before it hit the shelves. Chemical companies attempted to discredit Carson and her findings and threatened to pull ads from magazines and newspapers that gave Silent Spring favorable reviews." - Brian Payton, NASA Earth Observatory In “Silence, Miss Carson,” Dr. William Darby recommended that “in view of her scientific qualifications in contrast to those of our distinguished scientific leaders and statesmen, this book should be ignored.” - Chemical & Engineering News, October 1, 1962 The chemical industry had good reason to be worried. At time of Silent Spring’s publication, production was reaching a peak. “It is... an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged.” - Rachel Carson in Silent Spring |
“It is estimated that 350 million pounds of insecticides alone were used in the United States during 1962.” - Use of Pesticides, a Report of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, 1963
In the same year, Monsanto Magazine published the satirical “The Desolate Year,” imagining a world without pesticides.
“It should be remembered well, this terrible year of the insect and rodent and weed. How the termites felled innumerable buildings... wiped out a library. How the great forests wilted... and masses of beetles killed off 6,000 pine trees in another.” - The Desolate Year |
"By the time Carson wrote her book, she was a popular author... but when she published something as controversial as Silent Spring, which attacked DDT, then suddenly this author who was well-known and well-regarded was called a spinster and a non-scientist, none of which were true." - Mark Madison, Historian of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a personal interview “It would be all too easy when [testifying] in front of Congress... to turn around and say, ‘Oh, it’s just a hysterical woman.’ It’s just one more way to discredit somebody.” - Bruce Hamilton, Conservation Director of the Sierra Club, in a personal interview |
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Public Outrage
“No one had ever thought that humans could create something that could create harm all over the globe and come back and get in our bodies,” said Carl Safina, oceanographer and MacArthur fellow. When Safina read Silent Spring at age 14, he “almost threw up... when [he] learned that ospreys and peregrine falcons weren’t raising chicks because of what people were spraying on bugs…”
Carson not only forced public to consider the cost of industrialization but also placed the responsibility to protect the earth on the individual. |
- Bruce Hamilton, Deputy Executive Director of the Sierra Club, in a personal interview
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